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I have spent more time on them then I ever wanted to your back will never be so sore again. JD IMO is the best, but I have heard Cat has a nice setup too. I ran a few old Fords, and you want to talk about tedious work, modern skid steers would kill and old Ford in production.

I spend a good bit of time on a John Deere skiploader, sometimes looking backwards all day long. You get a real good case of "tractor neck" from turning around all day. I found a beer when I get home goes a long way toward taking the kinks out of my neck.
I have a device similar to the red one on the back of the second skiploader except it has higher side plates and the blades in it are on an angle and are controlled with a hydraulic cylinder. It beats the heck out of a rear gannon on roads or any large flat surface. I specialize in finish grading and it has made me a lot of money. I have it so I can pull it behind the skiploader or push it in front of my skidsteer. On a washboard road the angle blades cut off the tops of the washboard much better than a gannon. It is 7 feet wide and 5 feet long. A very useful tool for many finish grading jobs.

I also am not really conversant with the term "skiploader". I'd heard the term, but I'd always thought it was someone's garbled pronunciation of skidloader. I guess I was mistaken.

I've seen similar machines used on pavement milling jobs, but they've been equipped with angling backblades, rather than just those boxes. They use a couple of them to clean up the crumbs that the milling machine fails to get onto its conveyor.

If a skiploader is simply a tractor/loader with a three point,I could see how it would be very versitile.Especially for people like me who use equipment for work,and home.

I've a 6ft snowblower for the Farmall that would fit perfectly on the back of that,providing there's a PTO.

In some regards I like a loader like that more than a skidsteer.They may not be as manuveable,or efficient,but I'd feel more comfortable loading a truck with it,over a skidsteer.Just because of the added wheelbase,and the fact there's not dirt raining down on the cab when you lift it up that high.Also a more stable feel on uneven ground.

I had always assumed that it was referring to the European "skip" or container that gets dropped of on a building site - like a "swap-loader" here. The skip loader is either the truck that picks it up or the loader that fills it.
Maybe I'm mistaken too?

Iâ€™ve always have heard skip loaders are a western deal. From what I have heard it is a relatively small market. They are very abundant in California.
The John Deere 210 LE and Case and the Case570m are good example of the newest skip loaders. They are basically a backhoe loader with a 3pt or even just a counter weight.
They are much less expensive than a wheel loader while still maintaining good truck loading characteristics.

What I have always found odd about skiploaders is that the max loading height is only around 9 to 9 and a half feet - much shorter than front end loaders. It is also much shorter than my S250 bobcat which is 10 and a half feet. Of course this holds true for the standard sized TLB as well.

skiploaders real common here in the desert..used extensively in residential construction. grading house pads, landscaping ect. ect.
oh by the way we got rain alot today over 140 days with none.:notworthy

I had always assumed that it was referring to the European "skip" or container that gets dropped of on a building site - like a "swap-loader" here. The skip loader is either the truck that picks it up or the loader that fills it.
Maybe I'm mistaken too?

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This is where I think they got their name Do you remember the old cement mixers before ready-mix plants that were pull around to the job site and mixed the concrete on site. they were small to 6yds or. These had a skip that you put gravel, sand and ect in then was winched up by a cable into the mixer. They called the small loader a skip loader that loaded the skip.
There is a cat old just north of me looks like an old D4 pony start with a loader on it runs straight up a mask and the bucket trips and drops the load. The loader frame has a tag that reads caterpillar skip-loader.
My opinion not in stone.
DC

There is a cat old just north of me looks like an old D4 pony start with a loader on it runs straight up a mask and the bucket trips and drops the load. The loader frame has a tag that reads caterpillar skip-loader.

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That is what I thought of as a skip loader...kinda like the skip cars that feed ore to the blast furnace.
But...They seem to call TLB's without the B, like Jeff said, a skiploader...it must be a west coast name, because i really never hear that around here.
My neighbor bought a new Ford 545 skiploader back in the '80's for the farm, and it was a pretty versatile & well used tractor till skidsteers became popular.
I think the op manual just calls it a Ford Industrial Loader.
I think the hyd. cyls. on the JD's in the pic, for downpressure on attachments like a boxblade, would be a good feature.

cmon to think of it no. nocats that i have seen.masseys,fords,deeres,case,newhollands, basically tractor manufacturers.
it is an overused term in arizona (imo) the guys at work even refer to our Cat IT24 as a skip loader. i ask em what do you call it when we have the forks on it?a skiplift? and they say i am a smartass. lol......i generally refer to a tractor that the rear wheels are larger than the front, w/bucket in front and gannon or box scraper in rear as a skiploader.

I have seen a Cat skip loader (also known as a landscpe loader) at Holt's San Antonio location. It is based on the 416D, not the 420D, but that's not that big a distinction...

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yep tiger i would call that a skiploader. i've never seena cat one out here. good to know they make one though. interesting how different terminolgy can be here in this great country of ours.:yup :yup :yup

I was told they are called a landscape loader. The only one I saw was one that belonged to a paving contractor and it was sold at his going out of business auction for $18,900 something. I believe it was a JD 310 size 1995ish it was 4x4. Had a huge boxscraper on it that had hydraulic rippers.